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Godwyn Ladekahn
Godwyn Ladekahn is an officer in the Proudmoore Admiralty. A native of the City of Tyr's Hand in the Eastweald of Lordaeron, as a young man Godwyn was placed on an escaping Ship fleeing Lordaeron and the Plague of Undeath by his family whilst they remained behind, and made berth in Kul Tiras. From the age of eleven, Godwyn walked in the City Streets of Boralus and when he became a Man, enlisted in their Navy. Over the years, Godwyn has become a charming, dashing and roguish gentleman who dreams of one day taking part in the mission to reclaim his homeland, whilst remaining loyal to his adopted people in Kul Tiras. Description Godwyn's features are somewhat plain for a man of his height, his strong jaw and brow are hidden beneath a scruffy, shaggy exterior that he does his best to keep groomed and tied back. His eyes are bright and blue, and has had his nose broken and healed at least once. Significant scars criss-cross over his face, the most prominent of which are upon his left cheek, across his nose and above his brow. Godwyn is a a true rogue at heart, a man willing to play by the rules but break them if necessary. He is eloquent and well spoken, having a great thrill for reading. He is an amicable man, composed and competent. He is loyal to his friends and allies and expects loyalty in return. History Early Life Godwyn was born as the youngest son of Owyn Ladekahn of Tyr's Hand. Godwyn had a courteous, but distant relationship with his father, who had numerous other sons and soldiers to train, but enjoyed a close relationship with his mother Tonya, whom he inherited several physical traits from. Tonya died when Godwyn was four years old, leaving him to be raised in large part by his siblings and cousins. House Ladekahn was a knight-house of minor nobility in the Eastweald that raised armored soldiers for the army of Lordaeron. Like the rest of his brothers and cousins, Godwin was put through a young noble's education in his youth by being taught his numbers and letters and combat training. Slimmer and of slighter build than his brothers, Godwyn had difficulty wielding the broadswords and heavy armor that his family customarily used. What he was instead was faster. Unable to compete with his brethren's physical strength, Godwyn trained himself to run and outpace his opponents rather than overcome them physically. A trait that would serve him well later in life. Arrival in Kul Tiras At the age of eleven, the Third War broke out across Lordaeron. Early in the conflict the Plague of Undeath began to spread across the Eastweald. Tyr's Hand shut its gates to the outside world and did not open again until successful negotiations with the emerging Scarlet Crusade to become part of the new order. House Ladekahn and all of their lands and soldiers were absorbed into the Crusade, and Godwyn was mostly left on his own by the now-busy knights of the household. There was no doubt a future as a Crusader awaited Godwyn as well, if not for the intervention of his Grandfather, Tywin. Now a Priest of the Crusade himself, Tywin wished at least one Ladekahn to survive the madness of the Scourge and took Godwyn without his father's permission to King's Harbor where he was placed upon a refugee ship fleeing the Plague. Without a silver to his name, Godwyn ended up in Kul Tiras when the voyage came to an end, and began trying to find somewhere safe. Safety did not come easily to the young Godwyn. Many refugees had fled to Kul Tiras in the wake of the Scourge and public officials were overwhelmed. Godwyn vanished into the crowds and soon found himself on the streets of Boralus with only the clothes on his back. He soon fell in its urchin street gangs that stuck together to survive, begging and stealing by day and sleeping under tarps at night. Godwyn yearned for his family and days of feeling full and safe and protected. He would cry at night when none of the other children were looking. Eventually, Godwyn decided that he had to move on and accept what his life was like now if he was going to survive. He mourned his family, and moved on, determined to stay alive. Youth in Boralus Godwyn would spend much of his youth in Boralus, the Capital of Kul Tiras. With few other options, Godwyn fell in with the Orphan gangs. These urchins did grunt work for the larger gangs of adults that lived in hook point, and Godwyn's crowd of urchins was owned by the Scrimshaw gang of thugs. Threatened with violence, the orphans would panhandle or pickpocket any money they could off of passing travelers, and then turn in what they had collected at the end of the day to the gangs in return for a piece of their own work. One day, Godwyn was begging in the wrong gang's territory, and was taught a lesson he would not soon forget. He earned his first scar cut across his cheek with a metal can. After a number of years scraping by, Godwyn reached the age of fifteen. He had been one of the luckier children to have made it so long without being arrested or vanishing. He finally managed to get his first legitimate job hauling scrap upon a salvage freighter. Though the wages were slim, they were honest and they were his. It was a life that he wanted, and one he would pursue. He'd grown adept at hiding things over the year. Coins, books, things the gangs in Boralus wouldn't want him to have. More than the money, Godwyn appreciated the atmosphere of the shipboard life. It was freeing to be out on the ocean after so many years in crowded cities. More to the point, Godwyn was reaching the maximum age for the orphan crowds. The lucky ones lived long enough to join the street gangs in full. The unlucky ones sometimes simple outlived their usefulness, or fell to their death, or died cramped and alone in some hole. Godwyn found all of these fates unacceptable. Instead, he began planning his escape from the street life. Using what he'd been able to scavenge over the years, Godwyn bought some second-hand books on Seamanship and began studying the essentials of sail, determined to take the Proudmoore Academy entrance exam. Proudmoore Academy Against all odds, Godwyn actually placed in the upper top ten of his academy entrance exam, and was officially accepted into the Academy, being given the rank of Cadet and set to training. His first few weeks in the Proudmoore Academy were a time of adjustment. While he knew of the disciplined life expected of military personnel, it took him a decent while to adapt back to it himself. Despite these troubles, he resisted all temptations to drop out and managed to acclimate to academy life. He made few friends, but many acquaintances. During his years in the academy, he managed to maintain a perfectly clean disciplinary record, however this was less because of a lack of mischief and more a case of never getting caught. In his second year, he was caught by the academy groundskeeper defacing an academy oak tree with the initials of a recent conquest. Given a choice between a formal report and 'volunteering' his morning hours to help groundskeeper Crosby maintain the garden, Ladekahn spent the next five weeks tired in the mornings as he dragged himself out of bed to pay his debt to the garden. Though initially resenting Crosby, Godwyn eventually came to respect the man for his advice, which often came unsolicited, but proved itself useful in the ways of the Academy, and would often come back to him in the future even after he no longer needed help the aged groundskeeper. Godwyn's final life lesson from the Proudmoore Academy came in his last year when he and the rest of the Senior cadets were permitted to take summer jobs to earn money to pay for school supplies. Having arrived late to the job fairs Godwyn was left getting a job with Layson & Sons sail rigging company, a job that Godwyn hated. Being indoors in hot weather whilst his class was spending their time outside, Godwyn knew he had to quit three days into the job. Before he did however, he went to Crosby for advice. The old man only wanted to know if Godwyn had promised Mister Layson he would work the summer, to which Godwyn had, and Crosby suggested he stick with it. The job proved to be an agonizing stretch until the final day of the job, which Mister Layson took Godwyn aside, and let him know that he had been the first Cadet to ever make it through the entire summer, and gave him an entire gold coin as a bonus to his pay. More valuable than the money was the lesson that those who persisted saw the fruits of their labors, and that loyalty was always rewarded. Service to the Admiralty At the age of eighteen, Godwyn graduated the Proudmoore Academy, being commissioned as a Midshipman and assigned to the anti-piracy campaigns that had arisen in the years since Daelin Proudmoore's death. Godwyn distinguished himself in combat during these first excursions and earned his second scar in his first clash with a pirate vessel, slashing him across the face with a saber and leaving him with a permanent nasal scar. The pirate threat lowered for a time after six months at sea and Godwyn was promoted to Second Lieutenant. Godwyn would steadily rise through the ranks of the Kul Tiras Navy over the next four years, beginning to show his leadership capabilities when he was left to coordinate a successful attack against an Orcish frigate in the Captain's absence that was preying upon Kul Tiran waters during the Cataclysm. Miscellaneous * Godwyn's birthday is February 1st. * His favorite meal is a sausage sandwich on sourdough bread. * His favorite color is bronze. * He used to be a heavy smoker, but gave it up after meeting someone special to him. * His hobby is firearms. * He reviles undead and believes no walking corpse should have rights. Category:Characters Category:Human Category:Lordaeronian Category:Tirasian Category:Sailors Category:Kul Tiras Marine Corps Category:Fifth Fleet Marines Category:Kul Tiras Peerage Category:Rogues Category:Kul Tiras Navy Category:House of Ladekahn